Big Five Oh Trip

februari - april 2023

5 weeks interrailing round Europe as my big treat to myself for the year I turn 50. And hopefully as a taster for many adventures to come. Meer informatie

109Footprints
7landen
36dagen
1,3kfoto’s
2video’s
8,8kkilometer
15kilometer

Volgen Kalender Delen Bucketlist

Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 3 apr 2023 10:58
- ⛅ 6 °C
- Hoogte: 48 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Paris Paris 18 Buttes-Montmartre 48.896667, 2.3448°53’48” N 2°20’24” E
Dag 36
Homeward bound
3 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C
Walk. Metro. Eurostar. Tube. Train. Walk. Home.
Zie vertaling
Reiziger Yay welcome home. Looking forward to seeing you Thursday xx
03-04-2023ReagerenVertalen
Reiziger Thank you. Looking forward to seeing you, too!
03-04-2023ReagerenVertalen
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 2 apr 2023 15:45
- ☁️ 10 °C
- Hoogte: 45 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Paris Paris 11 Ancien - Quartier Luxembourg Musée de Luxembourg 48.848333, 2.33333348°50’54” N 2°19’60” E
Dag 35
Art, and a bit more Paris
2 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
Some of my favourite pictures from the exhibition (Leon Monet Collecteur at the Musée du Luxembourg). By the way, did you know that Claude Monet's first me was actually Oscar?

And a handful more Paris pictures. The observant among you might notice that I like taking pictures of doors, especially Parisian doors.

It will be weird not uploading multiple photos every day when I'm home.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 2 apr 2023 09:47
- ☁️ 8 °C
- Hoogte: 42 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Saint-Ouen 48.903333, 2.33333348°54’12” N 2°19’60” E
Dag 35
Bon Matin Paris
2 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C
Very cold morning wandering a bit in Paris (and I'm sure everyone will be relieved that I managed to get some pics of the Eiffel Tower, otherwise no-one would know I was in Paris).

Followed by lovely lunch with a friend at a vegetarian restaurant and then an exhibition and then coffee and cake. Nice way to round off the trip.

Have had lots of food, so will be fine with a few crisps and pieces of chocolate this evening. And then home tomorrow.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 1 apr 2023 11:41
- ☁️ 12 °C
- Hoogte: 23 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Paris Paris 09 Ancien - Quartier Cité Pont Notre-Dame 48.856667, 2.34833348°51’24” N 2°20’54” E
Dag 34
Paris de nouveau
1 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
More Paris. Went looking for Shakespeare and co. Did not go in as there was a huge queue (wandered past three times and always a huge queue). Finally ran out of roaming data (if only I hadn't uploaded those photos this morning while out and about I might have made it to Monday!). Faffed about with free WiFi trying to log in and renew my GiffGaff bag early, but it wasn't having it. So Chris had to do it from my computer. Now I have data again. Am quite impressed how long I managed to go, actually.

Had a nice lunch in a lovely little restaurant (with free WiFi!). Bought a birthday present for my sister and a piece of art for the living room. Final stop, so I can actually buy a few things. Walked down to La Bastille, where there was a fairly small protest happening, which looked to be about housing costs (at least the one banner I saw was about that). By this point my body had had enough, so I got on the metro and came back to the hotel, grabbing some snacks along the way. Since I had a good breakfast and lunch (with pudding!) a snack dinner is definitely acceptable. So that's probably me for the night, even though it's only 5pm.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
2 likes
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 1 apr 2023 10:18
- ☁️ 11 °C
- Hoogte: 99 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Paris Paris 18 Buttes-Montmartre Montmartre, overview on Paris 48.888333, 2.34548°53’18” N 2°20’42” E
Dag 34
Sacre-Coeur
1 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Oh look, I found somewhere famous (and full of tourists). But it is one of my favourite famous Paris spots, so that's OK. (Remembering why I booked the hotel that was close to Montmartre now.) On the metro now, though, and heading elsewhere.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 1 apr 2023 09:42
- ☁️ 10 °C
- Hoogte: 48 m
- Frankrijk Île-de-France Paris Paris 18 Buttes-Montmartre 48.896667, 2.3448°53’48” N 2°20’24” E
Dag 34
Montmartre
1 april 2023, Frankrijk ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
The hotel is actually on the outskirts of Montmartre so, while its immediate surroundings aren't particularly lovely, it's a fairly quick walk (c. 2K steps) to the nicer bits. There may be a few posts today.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 31 mrt 2023 11:02
- Hoogte: 70 m
- Spanje Catalunya Massanes 41.756667, 2.6941°45’24” N 2°41’24” E
Dag 33
Barcelona to Paris
31 maart 2023, Spanje
Very small number of out-the-window photos. It was a nice journey, though. Comfortable seats. On the upper deck. In a 'quarré' with a German family until Valence. Also very grateful that it was actually running. I did some work on an illustration assignment, and then read a bit. I tried reading my French book, but my brain couldn't switch off the German around me, Irish behind me and Spanish opposite me enough to parse the French, so I switched to an English book I picked up in Fnac in Barcelona.

In Paris now in an Ibis Budget quite far out (just outside the peripherique) and it was a bit of a trawl to get here. It's not exactly surrounded by nice restaurants, so am having a vending machine dinner and probably an early night and will eat some nice food tomorrow. Or something that's not entirely junk food, at least!

Oh, and it's colder here and a bit wet. Might actually get to wear my jeans again for the first time in a few weeks. Had begun to regret bringing them at all, but of course it was REALLY cold in Berlin and Munich, so they were needed.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 30 mrt 2023 12:39
- ☀️ 19 °C
- Hoogte: 35 m
- Spanje Catalunya Barcelona Sants 41.375, 2.13541°22’30” N 2°8’6” E
Dag 32
Barcelona
30 maart 2023, Spanje ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
No, I didn't go look at anything famous. I did walk in the direction of the Sagrada Familia, but got tired and had a headache, so got a metro back to the hotel, before buying some paracetamol (Four euros!!) I walked 13500 steps and I think my body was saying it's very much ready to go home.

But first, Paris tomorrow.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
0 likes
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 29 mrt 2023 09:26
- ☀️ 12 °C
- Hoogte: 678 m
- Spanje Castilla-La Mancha Argamasilla de Calatrava La Laguna 38.758333, -4.07666738°45’30” N 4°4’36” W
Dag 31
Puertollano to Barcelona (+ sidetrack)
29 maart 2023, Spanje ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
A very small handful of photos from today's journey.

I accidentally got on the wrong train in Ciudad Real and ended up in Madrid instead of Barcelona. The guard and one of the passengers were both lovely and tried to get my reservation swapped but I had to queue for half an hour buy a new one instead. All fine though, if not a bit embarrassing and not quite the calm comfortable journey I was expecting. Made it to Barcelona only an hour later than original plan and only €10 the poorer.

I have tomorrow to do a bit of exploring round Barcelona, before hopefully getting the TGV to Paris on Friday.Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like
Reiziger Big Five Oh Trip
- Reis weergeven
- Toevoegen aan bucketlistVan bucketlist verwijderen
- Delen
- 28 mrt 2023 19:12
- ☀️ 24 °C
- Hoogte: 712 m
- Spanje Castilla-La Mancha Puertollano Teatro Auditorio Municipal de Puertollano 38.691667, -4.10833338°41’30” N 4°6’30” W
Dag 30
Puertollano
28 maart 2023, Spanje ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
And now in Puertollano. Nice view if a mountain (or big rock?) from my hotel window. Walked into town to get some food. Nowhere was opening till 9. Wonder if they forgot the clocks went forward.

I went to a very nice little bar/restaurant which I had looked up earlier and decided om because they had a vegetarian section to their menu. Though actually it was mostly different versions of the same thing (mushrooms, spinach, onion and goats cheese on a pizza, in a burrito, in a quesadilla....). I really should have gone for the quesadilla! Way too much pizza for me. I ate half of it and that was a bit too much. It was nice. The dough was weird (so far, I am pretty sure I have not had good pizza dough in Spain) and also heavier than normal pizza dough (which isn't exactly light). But it was healthier than the crisps and spongey little cake things that kept me going the rest of the day.

I was considering asking for a second beer and sewing if I could eat some more, but think it was definitely the right call.to get up and pay instead. Oh, except they didn't take cards at all and I was down to a few coins. So I had to go round the corner to an ATM and get some cash out to pay. Yeesh.itbwas a lovely bar, though. Played good music. The sort of place I'd enjoy hanging out in with other people.

Going to be asleep pretty soon, I think. And going to get up earlyish to get some work done before the train. My ideal is to be all done before the train and then I can probably fit in some Barcelona exploration in the afternoon. But we'll see.

This is a weird kind of limbo place. I like the overnights where I get there in the afternoon and have some good wandering time. I do like their green walls though.

OK. ¡Hasta mañana!Meer informatie
Zie vertaling
1 like